


Other Worlds

by misbehavingvigilante



Series: Marvel Spookytober Prompts 2019 [26]
Category: Marvel
Genre: Cat Tony Stark, Child Death, Inspired by Coraline, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 03:41:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21190955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: To say he’s a cat is oversimplifying things, really.It’s like calling The Other Mother a woman when she is anything but, sure she can stretch her skin, and fit her face to assume a motherly image of any poor enough child to wandered into her web, but she isn’t a woman, she isn’t a human, she is Other.A lot like in the sense, Tony is Other.





	Other Worlds

**Author's Note:**

>   
[{Join me for the spook}](https://marvelspookytoberprompts.tumblr.com/post/188006745165/click-to-see-a-better-quality-of-the-prompts)  

> 
> Day 26 - Coraline
> 
> ALSO Child death warning is because you know... that happens in Coraline no child actually dies in this fic, it is as past child death, and mentions that you know, The Other Mother eats children but given it's a senstive subject, I tagged for it anyways.

To say he’s a cat is oversimplifying things, really.

It’s like calling The Other Mother a woman when she is anything but, sure she can stretch her skin, and fit her face to assume a motherly image of any poor enough child to wandered into her web, but she isn’t a woman, she isn’t a human, she is Other.

A lot like in the sense, Tony is Other.

The main difference being he doesn’t like to trick children, okay no, some playful teasing can be fun, but he’s done nothing so serious as to trick a child into sewing buttons into their eyes, so you can eat their soul and trap them in the Other World.

Well, one of many Other Worlds, but that realm is truly her own and even Tony’s strength is weakened there, there’s a limit to what he can, when she knows all of comings and goings in that world, but it isn’t like even she can stop him from going in and out.

He has to check for kids after all. So he has stayed in the same place for the last couple of decades, keeping watching and making companionship amongst those who come to dwell in the divided house.

After the last one had been nabbed decades back, the surviving twin had grown wise and kept children away from the place.

So Tony’s life had been relatively quiet, in the meantime. He’d visit, torment and tease the Other Mother who was growing weaker as the years passed since her last meal, he’d play with the occupants in the Pink Palace.

Clint and Nat’s place had a dog, but Lucky was relatively at ease with having a cat around and didn’t chase him other than to play with him, and Natasha liked to stroke his fur, and keep him in her lap, a clear sign that she was a cat person.

Bruce and Thor were another odd pairing. Bruce was quiet but he had a very wicked temper but he loved science and well, Tony loved science too. Thor was loud, and but very good natured and also loved science but just wasn’t as obvious about it. Tony liked hanging around them too even if the upper apartment was a bit drafty.

The ground level apartment had been vacant until a well-built blond, well not so much as Thor appeared one day. To say Tony was rather fond of Steve wasn’t a lie by any means. He might have liked Steve a little too much, but the apartment also seemed rather small for just one person.

Steve looked lonely, and only really happy when he painted things or when he was around Tony. Tony took a lot of pride in that, and stuck around Steve understandably just to keep him happy, not because he really liked being around Steve.

He’d been sitting on the couch, watching Steve paint away at something. Whatever he’d been trying to paint didn’t seem to be going very well, as he kept getting frustrated, the paint strokes hesitant and the staring at the mostly blank canvas happening more than most.

Tony meowed in question, wondering what exactly had Steve frustrated like this.

Steve sighed, but turned back to him. “Sorry, I’m probably not much in the way of company right now, am I sweetheart? I guess, I’m just nervous?”

Tony meowed again. This was an odd look for nervous, but then again, he hadn’t really seen Steve nervous before maybe that’s why he got it confused with frustration? He thought he knew all of Steve’s moods by now but clearly not.

“You are a very vocal cat.” Steve sounded fond, so Tony chirped in agreement. “I wonder, do you like kids? There’s a family I know, and they have a kid and I-“

Tony stopped listening, his thoughts consumed with that fact. Steve was going to bring a child here? Here? The apartment that actually had the small door that Tony guarded fiercely not even moving when Steve tried to tempt him away from it with cuddles or treats until eventually the blond got the point and left it well enough alone.

He felt his body shifting without any conscious thought behind it because he didn’t have the vocabulary in this world, he couldn’t speak as a cat because cats didn’t speak in this world, and he had to abide by the rules, to a degree. In Other Worlds, he could speak regardless of form, because these were clearly magical shapes, and their rules weren’t as many or as strict as they were in the human world. Cats could speak, and shriek and none would think any of it.

So he assumed a human facsimile, he always retained a few features from his original form, too sharp teeth to be human, slit-like eyes and sharp claws. He formed clothing out of nothing, knowing that humans valued modesty an awful lot compared to some things and he didn’t want to scare Steve on any other levels.

“You can’t bring children here!” Tony’s voice cracked, as it had been a while since he last spoken human words, his claws raked gently against the meat of Steve’s upper arms because the man had a tendency to wear tight shirts that Tony appreciated any other day but now he worried about drawing blood so he backed away. If he had a tail like this, it would have been low and close to the ground showing his unease. “She’ll steal them away after showing them a world of wonders only for to have been a world of horrors all along.”

Steve, understandably, looked spooked. Clearly not prepared for his cat, not that Tony had really been his cat, and that the man had only referred to him sweetheart, sweetie, and the likes, and it wasn’t like Tony could have communicated his name without giving away how intelligent he really was.

“What are you?”

“Other.” Tony explained. “But not like The Other Mother. She’s not the one you want to mess with, doesn’t care much about adults, but children, oh she loves to devour children.”

“So the entire time, you’ve been… like this?” Steve asked, clearly trying to phrase it without offending him. “Then again, you did never follow me into the bathroom and I never changed in front of you, thank god.”

“You didn’t. Clint? Thor? Those men know nothing of modesty.” Tony shuddered, that was more than he ever needed to see of the men even if they were nice bodies, and it wasn’t like Tony had been interested. “Never had that problem with Natasha so she’s like you in that sense.”

“Right, so… no kids?” Steve asked, confusion in his tone, but something determined too. “What is The Other Mother? Why haven’t you-“

“Taken care of her?” Tony sighed. “That world is her world. She was strong enough to craft her own world thus I’m weaker there, short of vicious mockery there’s not much I can do. I’m more of an interloper, I visit Other Worlds, and I don’t make my own. I mean, she’ll probably die in time, but she hasn’t been fed a kid’s soul in decades and is still kicking so…”

“So we’ll have to take care of it?”

“We?” Tony asked, tilting his head. “You learn that the cat that’s been staying with you isn’t a cat, and that there’s something that eats children’s souls and you’re immediately like, well, I gotta fight that?”

“Yes.” Steve said, without hesitation. “Maybe you couldn’t handle it because you were on your own, but you’re not alone anymore.”

Steve took his hand, and squeezed it reassuredly. Tony wasn’t sure if it was hotter because the furnace was on the fritz again, or if it was because he was blushing instead. It had been many, many years since he last blushed.

“My name is Tony, but I don’t really mind if you keep calling me sweetheart.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna chat, I'm on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/thiefoftruth26)


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